Real-life Mowgli kept alive on freezing streets by wild cats

A young boy was kept alive by wild cats while living rough on the streets, it emerged today.

The one-year-old, whose ordeal mirrors Jungle Book character Mowgli, was discovered by police in Misiones, in Argentina, surrounded by eight of the animals.

The cats snuggled up with him during freezing nights that would otherwise have killed him, doctors believe.

Rescued: The child is taken away by policewoman Alicia Lorena Lindgvist

The boy was seen eating scraps foraged by his feline friends while they licked him.

And they hissed as police approached the child.

Officer Alicia Lorena Lindgvist said: ‘I was walking and noticed a gang of cats sitting very close together. It is unusual to see so many like that so I went for a closer look and that’s where I saw him.

'The boy was lying at the bottom of a gutter. There were all these cats on top of him licking him because he was really dirty.

‘When I walked over they became really protective and spat at me. They were keeping the boy warm while he slept.’

The officer, who noticed scraps of food near the boy in the Christ King district, also told The Sun: ‘The cats knew he was fragile and needed protecting.’

Police have found the boy’s father who is homeless and said he had lost the boy several days ago while out collecting cardboard to sell.

He told officers cats had always been protective of his son.

I wanna be like you: The boy, like Jungle Book character Mowgli, left, was protected by animals. The cats, like right, snuggled with him to keep him warm

A spokesman for Thames Valley Animal Welfare, which deals with feral cats and strays in Berkshire, said: ‘They would have viewed the baby like a big hot water bottle.

‘Cats will cuddle up to anything to keep warm, even dogs.

He added: ‘In our experience of cat colonies, when a mother has a litter, all the other cats will go and fetch food.

‘The baby could have been feeding off the scraps they brought. Cats in Argentina stay in large packs to survive - much more than cats over here.’

In the Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, Mowgli is raised in the Indian Jungle by wolves.